Cat sanctuary proposed

A nonprofit organization wants Warren officials to change a local ordinance and allow up to 200 cats to live in one house.

Cat Tail Acres Sanctuary is scheduled to ask the Animal Welfare Commission on Monday night to endorse changes to city ordinances to allow for a cat “sanctuary” of feral and unwanted cats.

The organization has a pending deal to purchase a vacant, 1,300-square-foot house on Hoover Road, near Nine Mile, where they say the cats would be cared for, roam inside without cages and enjoy cat furniture.

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“There’s all kind of things to perch on, lay in, and go in the enclosed porch,” said Eileen Liska, vice president of Cat Tail Acres.

The organization founded 10 years ago currently cares for 180 cats at a house in Webberville, Mich., near Lansing. Founder Lisa Koester has been the caretaker of the feline occupants. But rising fuel prices have made the frequent commute from her Warren home to the community near Lansing a costlier one.

Sanctuary officials searched for a new location for months before finding the bungalow, built in 1940, and located in an area zoned for industrial use and just a couple miles from her home. They hope to relocate the cats to Warren.

Koester resides about two miles from the house and, assisted by volunteers, would spend hours at the house each day. Liska, a lobbyist who spent years working at the Michigan Humane Society, said the organization has helped communities such as Hazel Park, Madison Heights, Royal Oak and Southfield trap and manage colonies of feral cats, and would assist Warren officials as well.

Once trapped, the animals are sterilized and vaccinated at a veterinary hospital before being brought to the sanctuary.

“We do things the right way,” Liska said.

After some care, many of the feral cats become socialized to humans and the organization tried to adopt them. Those that aren’t, remain at the sanctuary until they become too old or sick.

“We don’t want to get more than we can care for properly,” Liska added.

The group has offered ordinance language that would amend Warren’s law and allow cats at kennels licensed by the Michigan Department of Agriculture, and broaden the definition of animal control shelters and animal protection shelters.

Hawke Fracassa, a member of the Animal Welfare Commission, said Monday he hasn’t heard all the details of Cat Tail Acres but will likely oppose it because he thinks it would pose a health risk to the public.

“Would you like to live next door to that?” he told a Macomb Daily reporter. “I love animals but that’s ridiculous.”

Fracassa, whose late wife was instrumental in convincing Warren officials years ago to establish the city’s first dog park, said he supports the concept of so-called “no kill” shelters. “But not just for cats,” he said.

The commission, which hosts low-cost vaccination fairs each year, is a recommending body to the City Council. Fracassa said a recent push for a special meeting of the commission intended to get the issue before the council on Tuesday, seemed rushed and unnecessary.

The commission meets at 7 p.m. on the second floor of the Warren Community Center, 5460 Arden (south of 14 Mile Road, west of Mound Road).